Scott Summers
Scott Matthew Summers (better known as Cyclops) was the Team Leader of the X-Men. Scott was born with the Mutant ability to shoot red concussive force beams from his eyes, which were latent until about the age of twelve. Biography Early life Scott Summers was born on July 25, 1986 to Christopher Summers and Katherine Summers. His parents never married, as his mother decided not to stay with his father any longer after finding out he had a child with someone else just prior to them getting together. Scott and his siblings were then raised by their mother in St. Louis, Missouri. Years later in 1998, when Scott was twelve years old, his uncle, a test pilot in the U.S. Air Force flew the family back from a vacation in his vintage private plane, a de Havilland Mosquito, the plane set ablaze and crashed. Scott and Alex were pushed out the plane door with one of the only available parachutes. The parachute was unable to slow their fall sufficiently and Scott used his optic blasts for the first time to slow their descent and shielded Alex from their landing with his body. Though surviving, Scott hit his head in the crash. This injury caused a slight amount of brain damage, affecting the portion of his brain that controlled his latent optic blasts, though Scott later made the conscious decision to not try to control his power for many years. Scott and his siblings were brought to the State Home for Foundlings, an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska secretly run by Mr. Sinister who had assumed the alias of Michael Millbury, and who had also registered Scott manifesting his mutant power. Because Sinister believed that Scott was the Summers child with the most potential, he had Alex, Lucas and Hope adopted away from the orphanage to both separate them and render Scott emotionally vulnerable. at which time, Nathaniel Essex (Mr. Sinister), the evil geneticist and Scott's future enemy, placed mental blocks on Scott, which prevented him from controlling his optic blasts for many years. Two weeks later, Scott began to suffer from severe headaches. He was then sent to a specialist who discovered that lenses made of ruby quartz corrected the problem. A few days later, Scott's mutant power erupted from his eyes again as an uncontrollable blast of optic force. The blast demolished a crane, causing it to drop its payload toward a terrified crowd. Scott saved lives by obliterating the object with another blast, but the bystanders believed that he had tried to kill them and rallied into an angry mob. Scott and his brother fled, escaping on a freight train. Saved Fortunately for them Scott's display of power had attracted the attention of the mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier who had been looking for them after the apparent death of the Summers's. Once he was able to track them down, he told them he was a mutant just like Scott and subsequently invited he and his brother to live at his Institute, wanting to make up for lost time on Moira's behalf. Scott and Alex became the first two students and X-Men at the Xavier Institute For Gifted Youngsters. X-Men As Cyclops, Scott became deputy leader of the X-Men and helped The Professor recruit many students including Jean Grey, Henry McCoy, Ororo Munroe and Warren Worthington III. While he was a skilled tactician, his social skills were lacking. Scott had fallen in love with his teammate Jean Grey, but his reserved demeanor prevented him from expressing his feelings. Scott also had to contend with Warren Worthington III, who at first, was also romantically interested in Jean. They did eventually confront each other with their feelings though, and became a couple. In between Scott took Jean's death very hard, somehow feeling responsible and even taking a sabbatical from the team. Eventually, Scott and Emma rekindled their relationship after she helped be there for him. Personality and traits Scott Summers was highly courageous, intelligent, fair-minded and possessed a dry wit. Scott was brave, self-less, and a first-rate tactician and leader. He had a very low self-esteem however, holding a low opinion of himself and obsessing over his shortcomings and failures. As a leader, he was very strict and no-nonsense, demanding seriousness, dedication and skill, usually earning him the dislike of more rebellious team members such as Wolverine. He strongly cared about his family, and was stoically loyal and fiercely protective of his friends, family as well as the X-Men. Like his father, Scott was a natural leader of the X-Men. But despite generally having a good heart and the best of intentions, he had his share of flaws. Scott also had a plethora of mental issues, bottling up his emotions and refusing to confront his issues, despite this affecting him adversely. Scott also blocked off his feelings in the past, first with, Jean Grey, whom he was afraid to get close to out of fear of his inability to control his mutant abilities at the time, as well as with Emma Frost. His favorite color was red and he frequently listened to the radio. Relationships Powers and Abilities Powers Optic Blast: Cyclops possessed the mutant ability to project a powerful beam of concussive, ruby-colored force from his eyes. Cyclops's powers were believed to be ambient energies (such as solar radiation, photons, and cosmic rays) absorbed and metabolized by his body into concussive blasts released from his eyes. Cyclops's mind had a particular psionic field that was attuned to the forces that maintained the apertures that had taken the place of his eyes. Because his mind's psionic field enveloped his body, he was protected from the effects of the energies, and even the thin membrane of his eyelids was sufficient to block the emission of energy. The synthetic ruby quartz crystal used to fashion the lenses of Cyclops's eyeglasses and visor was resonant to his minds' psionic field and was similarly protected. The width of Cyclops's eye-blast seemed to be focused by his mind's psionic field with the same autonomic function that regulated his original eyes' ability to focus. As Cyclops focused, the size of the aperture changed and thus acted as a valve to control the flow of particles and beam's relative power. The height of Cyclops's eye-blast was controlled by his visor's adjustable slit. His narrowest beam, about the diameter of a pencil at a distance of 4 feet has a force of about 2 pounds per square inch. His broadest beam, about 90 feet across at a distance of 50 feet, had a force of about 10 pounds per square inch. His most powerful eye-blast was a beam 4 feet across which, at a distance of 50 feet, had a force of 500 pounds per square inch. The maximum angular measurement of Cyclops's eye-blast was equivalent to a wide-angle 35mm camera lens field of view (90 degrees measured diagonally, or the angle subtended by holding a magazine's pages spread open, upright at 9.5 inches from your eyes). The minimum angular measurement was equivalent to the angle that the thickness of a pencil would subtend at 4 feet (3.5 degrees, about a quarter of an inch viewed at 4 feet). The beam's effective range was about 2,000 feet, at which point a 1-inch beam had spread out to 10 feet square, and then had a pressure of .38 pounds per square inch. Cyclops's maximum force was sufficient to tip over a filled 5,000 gallon tank at a distance of 20 feet, or puncture a 1-inch carbon-steel plate at a distance of 2 feet. The supply of energy for Cyclops's eye-blast was practically infinite. Thus, so long as Cyclops's psionic field is active, there was the potential to emit energy. The only limit to the eye-blast was the mental fatigue of focusing constantly. After about 15 minutes of constant usage, the psionic field subsided and allowed only a slight leakage of energy to pass through the aperture. Cyclops's metabolism would recover sufficiently for him to continue in about an additional 15 minutes. When directed at the energy-absorbing mutant Bishop, Cyclops was able to overload Bishop's powers in a matter of seconds. When Iron Man measured Cyclops's power while he was powering Bishop, he found the energy output was well over 2 gigawatts, larger than a large nuclear reactor. It was also stated that Cyclops did not often use his powers at such a level due to the preoccupation he had regarding his control (or lack thereof) of his abilities. The maximum force of Cyclops' optic blasts was unknown, but a commonly given description was that he could "punch holes through mountains", and was shown to rupture a half-inch thick carbon steel plate. Spatial Awareness: Cyclops possessed an uncanny sense of trigonometry, in this sense used to describe his observation of objects around himself and the angles found between surfaces of these objects. Cyclops repeatedly demonstrated the ability to cause his optic blasts to ricochet and/or reflect off those objects in a trajectory to his liking. This was commonly called a "banked shot" when applied to this talent. Cyclops was observed to cause beams to reflect from over a dozen surfaces in the course of one blast, and still hit his intended target accurately. Energy Resistance: Cyclops was resistant to the effects of his own powers. This was linked to him being capable of withstanding his brother's ability with no ill effects. This was a result of their close genetics, a quirk of mutant genetics that was common among siblings. Low Level Telepathy: On several occasions, Scott demonstrated a small degree of telepathy, including using Cerebro once. It should also be noted that Scott possessed a psychic bond with both Jean Grey and Emma Frost. Abilities Expert Pilot: Cyclops was an expert pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill he appeared to have inherited from his father. It was also implied that his trigonometric sense improved his abilities in the air. Leadership: Cyclops had spent most of his superhero career as the leader of the X-Men and developed exceptional leadership skills. It was notable that regardless of their general attitude towards him, all of the X-Men tended to obey his orders in battle because they knew that he was usually right. Master Martial Artist: Cyclops also had extensive training in martial arts and unarmed combat, holding black belts in Judo and Tae Kwon Do. His level of skill was sufficient to defeat six normal men with his eyes closed, and he had in the past held his own against such dangerous enemies as Wolverine and Ghost Rider. Weaknesses Power Regulation Disability: Due to psychological trauma at a young age, Cyclops was unable to control his optic blasts. In connection, his eyes had become too reliant on the ruby quartz he used. Emma Frost attributed the psychological trauma of losing his parents and the mental blocks put in place by Mr. Sinister as primarily being responsible for his inability to control his powers. After removing his mental blocks and overcoming his fears, he was able to open his eyes and control his blasts. Though, he still used the sunglasses and visor from time to time. Paraphernalia Equipment * Cyclops' Visor: The mask Scott wore to prevent random discharge was lined with powdered ruby quartz crystal. It incorporated two longitudinally mounted flat lenses which could lever inward providing a constantly variable exit slot of 0 inches to .79 inches in height and a constant width of 5.7 inches. The inverted clam-shell mechanism was operated by a twin system of miniature electrical motors. As a safety factor their was a constant positive closing pressure provided by springs. The mask itself was made of high-impact plastic. There was an overriding finger-operated control mechanism on either side of the mask, and normal operation was through a flat micro-switch installed in the thumb of either glove. A separate pair of lenses were also designed for Scott to use while sleeping. * X-Men Uniform: The uniform Scott wore was made from 9-ply Kevlar (able to withstand ballistic impact up to .45 caliber bullets)and beta-cloth, a fire-resistant material whose kindling temperature was 1,700 °F (930 °C). Transportation X-Jet, X-Copter, X-Van, a Red Audi A4, among other conventional vehicles. Appearances Notes and references Category:Males Category:X-Men members Category:Mutants Category:Summers family Category:Americans Category:Humans Category:Pilots